Staining agents for making visible dental plaque are known in the form of solutions, tablets, toothpaste, and gels.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,723,613 A discloses a staining agent in tablet form that contains FDC Blue No. 1 and FDC Red No. 3 in order to indicate older dental plaque in dark blue and newer dental plaque in violet-red; this provides important information in regard to the advancement of dental plaque formation and in regard to the treatment thereof.
European patent 0 421 838 B1 discloses agents for indicating dental plaque formation; the agents contain conventional water-soluble dye FDC Red No. 3. A disadvantage is that FDC Red No. 3 has an unpleasant taste; moreover, in the United States its use as a component of cosmetic products has been prohibited in the year 1989 because its innocuousness has been called into question. According to European patent 0 421 838 B1, the less bitter tasting dye FDC Red No. 40 has been proposed as a substitute dye; this dye has a stronger color intensity in comparison to other dental plaque-indicating agents, for example, FDC Blue No. 1, FDC Blue No. 2, so that these dyes are less useful as dental plaque-indicating agents than FDC Red No. 40.
In Japanese application 10175835 A, a staining agent for making visible dental plaque formation in the form of a toothpaste is described that contains phloxin as a dye.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,347,233 A discloses phloxin B in solution for caries detection.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,903,252 A discloses an agent in gel form for making visible dental plaque that contains a pharmacologically harmless organic dye component that is selected from the class of FDC Red No. 3, FDC Blue No. 1, FDC Violet No. 1 and others.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,459,227A discloses a tooth paste containing FBC Blue No. 1 in order to make visible dental plaque. Japanese patent document 08059513 A concerns a solution that contains, inter alia, Red No. 3 and other Reds for making visible dental plaque. The same holds true for Japanese patent document 08143477 A. U.S. Pat. No. 4,431,628 A concerns a composition that contains the natural dye of sugar beets for making visible dental plaque.